


Thief in the Night

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 04:46:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1332439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Dinah moved to Gotham after Roy's drug addiction, it's not the Batmobile's wheels Jason Todd goes after. Pity for him, Dinah took exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thief in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Published in serial format at my Livejournal over a few months.

Dinah was bone-tired. It wasn't enough that she ran with the League. Gotham City, the place she'd been born, where she had first tested her knuckles on thugs and hoodlums, had needed more protection than its Bats could give. And, for the last several weeks, no one had seen Robin, a point of contention between the silent Bat and the Bird who had returned after a bad breakup with the Emerald Archer.

She was dragging as she turned back into the alley where she had left her bike, wanting the safety of her own bed and a little sleep before she needed to open her flower shop. She was not happy to find a half grown thug trying to steal parts off the bike that had been her mother's, to say the least.

"HEY!" She took off at a run when the punk tried to get away, too angry to let the insult go without a thorough thrashing. "Oh hell no! You mess with my bike, you get my FULL attention!" she snapped, intercepting the kid.

He put a good fight up, wanting to get away, wanting to escape the danger his recklessness had thrown him into. Stupid dare; he shouldn't have taken it, shouldn't have decided proving himself on the one hero who actually came down hard in the slums was a great idea. Batman was scary enough, but Black Canary... rumor said she had no bones about laying up anyone who touched her stuff.

The kid was learning first hand, as he felt the fight go fully against him, no matter how much fatigue he had seen in her when he decided tonight would be the right time. It was panic that made him pop his blade out, but the panic turned to fear when her eyes went twice as hard.

He did not have to feel it long, as a solid blow to his jaw put him down.

Dinah looked down as the anger cleared, seeing the half-grown kid clearly in the rare slip of the moon falling on them. A kid, no older than her Roy had been. Maybe even younger, she decided, seeing his smooth face as she knelt by him. 

"Don't know what the hell possessed you, kid," she murmured, trying to find some way to identify him. "But you aren't going to like having gotten my attention." She thought about asking if anyone knew the kid, but long experience told her no one would own up. With a growl, she shifted the (too-thin, too-light) kid up on her bike, securing him to the sissy bar. "No one messes with my bike, but if I leave you here...you'll be dead by morning." She headed home, driving slower than her usual devil-may-care pace, and wrestling the kid in. Morning would be soon enough to get him to whomever he belonged to.

* * *

The woman got the boy secured, semi-clean, and laid in her bed, before taking to the couch. She snagged the phone, pulling the afghan down over her legs once she was out of her gear and in a pair of sweats with an oversize Sharks shirt. She sighed, and dialed the number for her Boy-o, hoping he was in, so she could tell him the latest stupidity she had done.

"Harper," came through the phone half-drowsily after a couple of rings. 

"Boy-o..." She sighed softly. "God, but I've missed you lately."

"Di," his voice brightened as he woke completely, shifting up in the bed. "What's the matter?" 

"Found a bit of trouble, Roy. Trying to steal pieces off my bike." She let the indignation of that first discovery come back to her. "My bike...Mom's bike...the one EVERYONE knows not to touch."

"Who the heck was dumb enough to mess with your bike?" Roy asked, just as indignant.

"There's the second bit of trouble," she said, heavy sigh of apathy coming with it. "I was in the Crime Alley area...and it was this punk kid, probably dared by one of the gangs for initiation or something, doing it."

"So what'd you do with him? ...or her, I guess."

Dinah chewed her lip. "I kinda lost my temper, wound up knocking him out. Kid's maybe 15, 16 at most. Half-starved, from the looks of him, and already got the edge to his features that says street kid. I couldn't leave him out there, not when the gangs were likely to take him back, haze him, and then dare him to something that might get him killed. I'm going to try and find family for him...but what if he's got none, Boy-o?"

Roy stilled, taking a long, slow breath before he answered her, trying to think like the early 20-something he was, and not the scared kid that age he had been. "Nah, Di, you couldn't just leave him... and at 16, the system won't give a damn if he stays where they put him or not..."

She let out her breath. "I wish you were here...I know you have to live your own life, but, he's a pretty strong scrapper, and I might not be able to talk sense into him." She smiled lightly. "All I can do is try. If he goes away, if I have to try and take him in, then it's all his own making, I guess."

"I wish I was there, if you've got some young punk--that isn't me--there with you. Oh, don't bristle at me I know you can kick my ass, that's not the point!" That Di sounded willing to let the kid go again once she tried... settled something that was trying to be heard in the back of his mind.

"I love you, Boy-o. I'll give the kid a try, and if he's too rough, see if Jim can pull the strings to get him into one of the work programs. Going to have any time off soon?" She sounded hopeful. "I'd love to see you again."

"Love you, Di. And yeah, I think I can get down there once I get this op wrapped... I hate red tape. Makes me want to drag the costume out and show up on 'Wing's door, y'know?"

"Have you been talking to him since he left town? The Bat won't give me any clue what's going on with him, and Batgirl just said he'd taken up the new name and costume." That had worried her greatly.

"Yeah, we've talked, Robbie's... pretty okay. Figuring out who he is without DaddyBat, you know?" 

"Good!" She had issues with sidekicks in general, not liking the way they either got forgotten, or too hung up in who their mentor was. It was one reason she refused to think of ever having a kid follow her that blindly. "I'd be glad to have you, in or out of costume, boy-o."

"I'll tell him ya think so," Roy said with a grin, not about to mention the rest of the reason Dick'd left to Dinah. Not when he wasn't going to be able to watch the explosion. Maybe later. "Alright, Di. I'll be down there soon as I can."

"Alright. See you soon as you can." She hung up, pleased at how the conversation had gone, and feeling better about her new lost waif's chances.

* * *

The first thing the kid knew was he wasn't anywhere he belonged. The second was that his hands were secured in cuffs, in front of him so he could sleep. He growled softly, starting to work on getting them off. 

And then she walked in, the demoness he'd been stupid enough to piss off. 

Except she was in jeans, a Gotham Knights shirt, and her hair was very black.

"Hey, kid... going to try and steal something if I let you out of those?" she asked. He stared sullenly at her, at the nice room, a small place that screamed 'girl' at him. "Suit yourself. It gets uncomfortable eating with them on."

"What the fuck?"

"First rule. Keep your mouth under control." She set the tray in her hands down near the bed, sitting in the chair. "Couldn't very well leave you out there for the gangs to get a hold of, not when you don't have any of their marks on you."

"What's it to you?" Despite himself, the young tough was curious what game the dame was up to.

"You broke my bike. Only fair you fix it." He hadn't done much damage to it, but it was a good enough excuse.

"Fuck..."

"Last warning, kid. Won't hurt you, but I can damn sure drop you on the precinct's door. They're used to having presents from me. What kind of story would your fingerprints tell?" She met his gaze clearly, and he wound up paling. If rumor was right, the cops liked her. A lot.

"How 'bout you just turn me loose, and we call it even?" he asked with a damn good attempt at a pleading half-innocent look.

"Sure... soon as you tell me where your mom or dad is," she said affably. Because she still had his eyes, she saw the spike of emotion. "Ahh... you don't have anyone to claim you. Guess that means I'm responsible for you."

"Ain't no one responsible for me," he blustered.

"Might have been true... until you touched my bike. Cause, kid, no one touches my bike. No one. Everyone out there knows that, even kids younger than you. So you brought this all on yourself, asking for my attention in the worst possible way. So now you've got it." She smiled at him, and it made his stomach go very cold. "I'm a stubborn woman, kid, so until you make it up to me..."

"I don't turn tricks for broads like you..." he snapped, all bravado and threats he could not back right now.

And she laughed at him. "Sweetie, if my tastes ran young, the most important boy in my life would give me anything and everything I could ever want in that department. No, you're going to work for me, to make up what you did to my bike."

He shoved his cuffed wrists out at her, plans to escape brewing in his head. She read his eyes, read his face, and then reached out, quickly unlocking the cuffs and scooping them back to herself. Something in the way she handled them nicked at his perceptions, but he put it away, and grabbed at the tray.

She got up, walked out, and left him with his food and thoughts.

* * *

Unfortunately, she was right outside the door when he decided he was leaving. She grabbed him by the collar, shoved a bundle of clothes at him, and pointed back at a bathroom. "I'm serious, kid. Get your narrow butt in the shower, scrub clean, and put those on. You're working for me."

"You don't own me, bitch!"

The slap was one he never saw coming, and it was light, just enough force to make his ears ring from the pressure against the back of his head. "Look, Kid, I don't need another mouth, but you don't need to jump right back out there. Whoever put you up to that stunt will goad you into something a whole lot stupider. So you will clean up, you will accept my deal, to work for me, and maybe... just maybe... you'll see your 16th birthday, brat!"

"Why?!" he snapped back at her. "Why do you fu... care?" Her glare had cut out the profanity, and the way she appraised him made him feel about ten years old again. She actually looked like she gave a damn.

"Got a habit I can't seem to break now. Making the kids I can reach land on their feet." She turned away. "Go clean up." 

He hesitated. The opening was there, a vase nearby that would make a damn effective weapon against her skull.

He turned and walked to the bathroom, telling himself it was a whole lot warmer in this place than on the streets.

* * *

By the end of the first day, his brain had broken several times on the fact that the hard-ass bitch from the streets was a damned florist. And she was a hard task mistress, making him break his back working for her.

She told him 'not bad' as she was closing up, and he cussed himself inwardly for the way it made him feel good.

They got back, and she cooked, giving him his third meal of the day, second having been takeout she had given him a twenty to go get. He hadn't given her the change; she hadn't pressed. While he was finishing up, she had gone, changing into her street clothes to go out.

He had to admit that she was a fucking bombshell, making him shift hard in his seat against reflexes.

"You need to stay here. I know a little about the area you're from, kid. You go back out, they'll call you a bunch of things, and you'll get hyped up, and try something idiotic, like taking the hubcaps off the Batmobile or hazing a cop. But I can't stay and babysit you."

He bristled at her choice of words, and she just smirked at him. 

"Stay in. Or not. But if you don't..." She shrugged at him. "It's on your own head."

* * *

She'd been right. Except he'd used his fists, and they had used makeshift clubs.

He cried out as someone came back, touching him. 

He thought he smelled flowers and leather.

Then he didn't know anything, for the second time in two nights.

* * *

The coolness of a wet cloth, stroking over his lips, made his thirst strongly apparent. He smelled the scent of antiseptics... and flowers before a piece of ice was held to his lips. He took it eagerly, one eye opening enough to see her.

"Kid, I warned you. Going to stay this time?"

He nodded, regretted it immediately, and puked everywhere.

She just cleaned it up, soft smile on her lips at some private thought.

* * *

Dinah settled, phone at her ear, glad to know the kid was good and asleep. She waited for Roy to pick up. It had only been three nights since they talked about her taking the boy in, but she figured she ought to call him and let him know what had happened.

It took a couple of rings before her boy's sleep-rough voice came over the phone again. "Yeah? What now, Steel?"

She laughed, softly, her voice low and throaty with the late night. "No, Boy-o, just me. If you need sleep, I can go..."

"Oh... sorry, Di. He's been riding me all damn day... I'm awake now. What's up?"

"Worked that kid through one full day... no parents like I thought. I warned him he'd probably get his ass handed to him on the streets if he left when I took off for patrol... and he did. He left, got beaten bloody and broken." She let out a long sigh of disgruntlement. "I had a feeling, went over, found his scrawny butt and got him to Leslie. He's back now, supposedly going to stay."

"...you're going to keep him?" Roy heard, too late, just how his voice had come out and swore mentally. "I mean... how bad did he get hurt, that you had to drag him to Leslie?"

"I can't just turn him loose, Roy. He'd either get killed or wind up as one of the newer nutjobs this city grinds out." Dinah's heart was bleeding for the waif-thin kid she had taken in, mostly because of those memories of another too-thin kid with problems. "Broken ribs, dislocated shoulder, broken leg... looks like they took bats or pipes to him."

"...damn," the part of him that was the hero and the agent winced sympathetically. "You might be right, Di. I mean, about Gotham..." He'd thought he'd been scared when Ollie took that kid in, way back when he was a kid... that had nothing on how he felt right now, with Dinah sounding so torn up over another young punk kid with too many problems and nowhere else to turn.

"Boy-o." Dinah's voice got very soft. "You do know, you're still mine, in every way... nothing, no one, nobody can touch just what you mean to me, right?"

"I... yeah, Di. I know..." //Until this kid slips under your skin deep enough...// He knew she couldn't be her and do anything else, knew that one of the things he loved best about her was the compassion that made her want to take care of people... but... 

"Still want you to come see me, when you can, Roy." She then giggled. "You know, he thought I was offering him everything and expecting 'favors' from him. Told him just exactly what I thought of that nonsense in a fast hurry."

"....YOU? Kid's a damn idiot." //...when you could have had anything and never once...// He shook his head, trying to push off the fear in him. "I'll be down tomorrow, now that I've got that damn op finished..." 

"See you then, Boy-o."

* * *

"Why do you dress like a hooker?" 

He'd been in her house for three weeks, and could almost get around on his own, with the crutches. She made a grimace with her lips, but pushed her hair behind an ear. She really wished Roy had made it to visit, like he had intended, but understood that crisis situations popped up. It was more important that he do his job than come meet this punk kid and help her knock sense into him.

"Mom started out as a gimmick thief, to get in with the ring she wanted to bust. And she found that men were real stupid when a pair of fishnets were involved. So I kept the look, made it mine, and still men are stupid."

He grunted at that. He thought she looked best in her sweaters and slacks, now that he had been here a while. The 'nets got him hard, but he dreamed of those sweaters.

"Going to owe you whole helluva lot of work."

"Got that right, Bucko." She ran a hand through his wild hair, to his apparent annoyance, and his inner delight.

"You never call me Jason." It wasn't quite sulky, just curious and none too happy with her chosen epithet for him.

"You don't look like a Jason. And names... names have power, my boy tells me."

He could not quite hide the flare of jealousy, the way she said those words, 'my boy'. Every time Roy came up, Jason felt his balls draw up tight, and anger flooding through him.

This woman was his angel, not anyone else's, anymore.

* * *

'Bucko' became 'Jay' by the end of the first month, and the nickname felt right to both of them. Before, when kids had called him that, he'd never really liked it, but her voice... made it feel perfect to him. 

Once he could be up and around, he helped in the shop. Wasn't a whole lot he could do, because he was no frou frou boy, playing with flowers, but he could watch the till. That let her do more, cleaning the shop, making arrangements without so much interruption.

No one came looking for him.

No one expected to find a Crime Alley brat to be living with Dinah Lance, respected Gotham girl. A woman he was fast discovering had connections in or out of the 'nets.

The woman Jay would probably kill for, once he got better, if anyone ever really came after her. He was more than smart enough that not only had she saved his life, but she had given him a new one. If he just managed not to screw it up...

* * *

Dinah tried not to groan too much, feeling the effect of that near-catch by the Freeze Ray Mister Freeze had been using. As it was, she was still almost blue. She knew better than to rub at frostbite, but the temptation was strong.

As if on cue, to distract her hands, the phone rang, and she answered. "Dinah here."

"Hey, Di..." 

The woman's breath exploded out of her to hear her boy-o, after nearly four weeks without communication. "You're back finally!"

"Yeah... sorry, Di. Central Asia... well, you know what it's like there... Wish I could have gotten down there before they sent me off--he does _not_ understand the concept of time off, I _swear_." 

"It's not like our community as a whole understands it," she said softly. "Going to be able to come soon? I miss you."

She could hear the grin as he answered, "Considering I'm standing down in the train station? I'd hope..."

"Here in Gotham, boy-o?" Her voice jumped in levels of excitement at the thought. 

"Yeah, Di... figured I'd call and let you know before I just showed up..." 

"Make sure you use the right cab company," Dinah admonished him. "I'd come get you, but I'm still trying to thaw out." She grinned. "See you very soon, Boy-o."

"Yes, Di," Roy laughed at her, then questioned, "Thaw ou--never mind. I'll get the story when I get there. See you Di." He hung up and headed out to flag down a cab. 

"Jay!" She watched as he ducked his head out of the bedroom //really need to get a bigger place//. "Roy's on his way, probably stay at least tonight before he goes looking for that trouble of his."

Jay couldn't quite keep the scowl off his face, and wound up getting a pillow launched at him from her spot on the couch. "Sure, Di...where the hell is he going to stay?"

Dinah laughed at the kid. "Don't worry, that leg of yours still warrants the bedroom. This couch does rig out; I'm just too lazy to do it most nights."

"Where's that put you?" Jay asked with suspicious tones. 

"It's a big bed. Roy's used to sharing." She was already getting up to go make sandwiches, and missed the pure jealousy that ran across his features.

* * *

Dinah threw the door open as soon as she heard someone in the hallways, and squealed happily at seeing Roy there. While Jay watched from the chair opposite the door, the tiny dynamo pressed into Roy's arms, holding him fiercely with a kiss against his cheek.

"Come on in!" She sized him up. "Did you add another inch, Boy-o? Geeze, you're going to tower over me!" She looked at Jay with a very happy face. "Roy Harper, this is Jason Todd. Jay, meet Roy." 

Jay tried hard to be civil, used the cast on his leg as an excuse to not get up, barely being polite enough to not just glare at the interloper in the apartment. "Hey."

"Hey," Roy replied just as coolly, arms still wrapped around his Dinah as he looked over her head at this punk kid she'd taken in. "...I might have, Di, and everyone towers over you, Di, remember?" He dipped down enough to kiss her cheek, before letting go and shoving a hand into the pocket of his jacket, coming back out with one of those little silk gift-bag things in a dark blue. "Here. I know I'm at least one birthday behind on presents, and I couldn't resist this," he said as he tried to hand it over. 

"You really shouldn't have," She said, but her eyes sparkled as she looked at it, then his face. //Growing up into a proper man, Boy-o.// She accepted the gift, settling on the couch and pulling him with her, despite Jay's patent bristling. She set about opening it, curious what it might be.

"I thought it looked kind-of like a canary," Roy said as the paper inside the bag came off to reveal a carved jade bird, arm wrapped down her waist. He could feel the kid bristling over there, but he damn well didn't care. 

"It's so pretty." She looked at it very closely, then turned and kissed Roy again. "I love it!" She then got up to put it in a prominent place in her one curio cabinet. 

Jay decided that was about all of the Roy and Dinah show he felt up to tonight. He'd think on just what he could do to make sure the young man didn't stay more than the one night as he hobbled up. "Going to get some sleep, Di. You want me to open for you in the morning?"

"Yes, Jay.… Should be enough in the cooler to let you get the day started." Dinah smiled at the other boy, ruffling his hair when he got close.

Roy watched that affectionate gesture with a flicker of his own jealousy, but the way Di'd curled up on him, with him... That did so much to ease the nagging fear that he was losing her to this kid that had ridden his shoulders since he'd had to leave. He still intended to have a couple words with the kid, just in case Di was missing something //oh, Yeah, Right, Harper,// he snorted at himself. 

Jay made it to the bedroom, Dinah following him in briefly, to be sure he didn't have any trouble with getting his leg settled. She came back, shaking her head, and dropped down against Roy.

"Boy's a little nervous about you being here, I think," she said, her voice soft and low for Roy's ears only. "I'm afraid he might have a slight crush on me, for having helped him out."

Roy tried to hide the growl as she said that, knowing he wasn't keeping his eyes from shifting towards the more gold tones they took when he was upset, and just tried to keep her from seeing it as his arm tightened around her a little. "You think?" //Can't imagine why he would,// he did manage to keep the sarcasm to himself. 

She pressed close, nuzzling at him lovingly. "He's got a lot of potential, Roy. Strong will, street-smart, decent start on fighting skills. Just got to get him to a point where he can make something of it all. He's doing good with me, working down in the shop, but it won't be much longer before the cast is off, and then I'll have to find him some serious work." She snorted. "After all, a flower shop's not exactly macho." She grinned. "Enough about that... got anything you can share with me about what you've been up to?"

Only the way she curled up against him, nuzzled at him and stayed close kept him from being as bitterly unhappy as part of him wanted to be at her appraisal of the new punk kid in her life. "Eh. He'll get over it." He'd known she was going to keep the kid around, but... He thought again about the way the kid had looked, and figured there was pretty much no chance of that kid leaving any more than he ever had--but damn, he hoped he was wrong. "Um... not a lot, you know how the government can be, but..." He did have a story or two about some of the things he'd seen in Hong Kong... and didn't think quick enough to avoid telling her where he'd been running in what had been South Vietnam. 

She frowned, not really happy at that, and seeing a lot of potential for his ass winding up in a sling if the government got dicey. She'd have to make sure to remind people soon that she was still very much Justice League, and that Roy Harper, agent of Checkmate, was very much hers. They drifted to other talk as they tended to, until she got his help to break out the bed, and they curled up, talking into the night.

* * *

Jay tried to be quiet, for her sake, as he got up to snag breakfast and get down to the shop. He froze in the doorway of the bedroom though, staring in white-hot anger at the way the woman who'd saved him was spooned tight in the redhead's arms. The fact Roy didn't have a shirt on didn't make it any easier on Jay's mood, as the pair shifted, reacting to his presence. 

"Just going to the shop," Jay managed to choke out, voice a little deeper with his emotions. It was enough to settle Dinah back down, but the man holding her?

Roy looked over at the kid, read the fury in him as easily as Robbie--no, Nightwing, now--could have, and knew what Dinah had on her hands was more than a "little bit" of a crush. Looked more to him like the kid was working on being as crazy about the woman curled up against him--and he had his self control on one hell of a leash, with her that close against him--as he was. On one hand, he could see that as a good thing... kid was less likely to hurt her if he loved her.. and on the other, anger and fear burned just as deep in him as it looked like they were in the kid, and he held her just a little closer, glaring at the kid as he did.

Jay met that glare with one of his own. He had no liking for Roy, figured Roy didn't deserve her anymore, no way. He was off, gone doing things and making Dinah worry over long nights with no calls. Jay was right there, and Jay was going to be the one to stick close, he decided as he made his way out as quick as he could.

* * *

Dinah was ready to strangle both her boys. One full day was all it took for the daughter of one superhero and one private eye to really feel out all the undercurrents. Seeing Jason bounce off of Roy, and vice versa, told her she had a real problem on her hands.

It wasn't that she didn't know how deeply Roy loved her. She just had always put it off to the fact they had gotten so close in his recovery, that it was a Nightingale syndrome. Granted, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt she would do nearly anything for Roy, but still it was shocking to see the depth of it.

And Jason was so new in her life... but he seemed to be even more lost, more needful of an anchor than even Roy had been. That he had latched onto her, after she saved his life, wasn't that surprising.

He didn't have the Titans to fall back on, either. That meant something had to give, and give soon. She just hoped it didn't cost her everything she had built with Roy.

* * *

Her determination to speak to Roy fell apart the minute she found herself reacting to the punch Jason had thrown at her older 'boy'. Roy's growling block told her this was as much the redhead's fault, and she stepped back, waiting, watching for the moment she would need to break it up to save one of them true injury.

She even found herself suitably impressed that the slightly smaller, younger boy was giving damn near as good as he gave. There was bruising and bloody noses to share when she finally did step in, ricocheting a punch off her forearm, and tripping the smaller boy to break them apart.

"If you two hyper-sensitive, overly protective, macho boys are quite done, there's a hell of a lot of work that needs done in my shop to use that energy!" She glared at them equally. "And if either one of you wants to darken my doorstep tonight for dinner, you'll find a way other than your fists to figure out the plain and simple truth that you're both part of my family and you damn well better get along!"

Jay and Roy both watched her stalk off, the sheer anger in her still vibrating in the air.

"Made her cuss," Jay commented.

For some reason, that made Roy laugh with a hint of tension relief. As much as he feared losing Dinah, her anger made something patently clear to him. She was not one to let go, just as she promised him, and if there was a woman suited to saving problem kids, it sure as hell was Dinah.

* * *

"I wanna do what you do." Jay had been mulling it over, ever since the fight with Roy had led to the two actually talking. Roy hadn't wanted to spill his story, but unless they wanted Dinah to bawl them out, they had to find a common point. They still didn't like each other much, but they had Dinah to think about.

She sized him up, head cocked to the side.

"Then you need to learn how to fight."

"I know how!"

The next moment, he was flat on his stomach, arm up behind him, and unable to move, her whole weight concentrated on one nerve cluster in his back.

"But not that good," he conceded.

"One more thing...I don't do sidekicks." She got up and left him alone.

"We'll see about that," he said, quietly.

* * *

The costume was pretty straight forward. A pair of armored pants in a black that shaded from deep ebony to smoky charcoal, a perfect blending that allowed Jay to go unseen in dark alleyways. The breastplate of it was slightly more reinforced, but done in the same coloring, while he wore a lightly armored jacket that split in the back, coming down to the top of his thigh. When he jumped down it tended to flare out, making the impression of wings. 

A domino to match the overriding gray and and black design completed the costume with his matching gloves and boots. That his hair refused to be tamed and gave him a rakish air did not change the overall striking image he cut, and Dinah nodded with satisfaction. She had gone the opposite way of Robin and Speedy both. She didn't want the thugs to notice her partner (not sidekick) until it was too late. He'd be the hidden asset while she distracted and misdirected.

"Black Bird." She walked around him once, then stood in front of him again. "You're ready, Buck-o." He growled at the affectionate nickname, flexed a little in the armor, and nodded.

"Been telling you that for weeks." It had been over a year since she saved him, a year of being taught martial arts by her, boxing by some old geezer in a cat costume, how to get free by some idiot from a place called New Genesis, and basic detective work by following her, the Bat, and the cops. Tonight was going to be their first run together, and Jay couldn't wait. Maybe, just maybe, if he showed how good and strong he really was, he'd start getting through to her as a man, instead of just being the boy she'd saved.


End file.
